


Green Eyes

by mantismantis



Category: Trigun
Genre: Depression, F/M, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Series, Slow Burn, Vash/Reader, i guess??, just trust me on this one, really slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-06-08 07:41:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15238647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mantismantis/pseuds/mantismantis
Summary: Green eyes, I'd run away with youGreen eyes, 'cause I'm a foolI tried running away--I'm just not fast enough,I'm just not man enoughTakes place around like 80-100 years after the manga leaves off, so you can assume that everyone in the series who isn't a Plant is (probably) dead by now. I had previosly set this in the anime universe but I've decided to switch it over to be post-trimax, so there may be spoilers and differences if you've only watched the show.(Green Eyes is a song by Wavves.)





	1. Chapter 1

Your big brother was gone.

He had practically raised you, but for the last few months, you had been the one who was taking care of him. The town doctor had told you two weeks ago that there was no way to help him, and you hadn’t wanted to believe it, but now…

Now, there he was, in his bed, asleep. But he was no longer breathing.

You dropped the two cups of coffee you had been holding. Your legs suddenly failed, and you fell to sit on the ground in a heap. Your insides felt like they were going to twist their way out of you through your throat. You struggled for a moment to hold back a sob, but it quickly overpowered whatever small shred of will you had left, and you were crying before you had even realized it.

You weren’t sure how long you sat on the floor for, face buried in the edge of the bed, unable to bring yourself to touch the lifeless body of your only family. Minutes, hours-- no matter what it had really been, it had felt like years-- later, you were brought back to reality when you noticed a sharp pain in your legs-- when you looked, you saw that they had been burnt by the coffee and cut by the pieces of the broken mugs when you’d dropped them. 

The feeling offered enough of a distraction from the situation at hand for you to stand and make your way to the doctor’s office down the street. You had to tell somebody. You couldn’t just leave him there. You clung desperately to the painful stinging feeling in your legs in order to keep moving. 

When the doctor came to the door at your knock, you didn’t have to tell him what had happened for him to figure it out on his own.

===

The rest of that day had passed by you in a haze. The doctor returned after a while, you couldn’t say how long, and he cleaned, treated and wrapped your legs while talking to you in a somber voice. You didn’t really register whatever it was he said. You didn’t want to hear it. You didn’t want to think about it. 

You couldn’t think about it. 

You slept in the doctor’s office that night.

===

The day after was the funeral, and you didn’t register much of that, either. You knew it had happened. You had attended it, but you didn’t speak or look up. You’d worn your coffee-stained dress from the day before. The townsfolk gave you their condolences, and you’d left the cemetery without saying anything-- how could you say anything? 

What was there to say?

What was there to do?

When you arrived at the front door of your home, you were quickly hit by a feeling of dread, the first thing you had felt since the day before. You could no longer live here, you realized. Not in an empty house. The dread was quickly overturned by panic, bubbling in your chest. You were crying again. Your legs ached. You sobbed as you went inside the house and stuffed a bag with all of the things that mattered-- clothes, money, the few valuables you owned.

On your way out, you glanced at the door to your brother’s room, but you just couldn’t make yourself go inside. It felt like something terrible was going to happen if you touched anything in there (as if anything worse could possibly happen), so you rushed through the rest of your packing and left the house quickly, heading straight for the bus station.

===

You’d bought the first ticket out of town without even bothering to check the destination-- you just needed to get out. The ticket costed most of your money, but you figured you could sell your valuables once you got to wherever you were headed. You were an adult, you’d get it worked out somehow.

The wait was long, and the bus ride was longer, but the trip felt like it had taken both forever and no time at all when you were grounded once more by the squeal of brakes. You waited for the other people on the bus to get off before you, and you stopped at the door to ask the driver which town you were now in.

“Steelside,” he said, and closed the door behind you. You didn’t turn away quickly enough to avoid getting dust in your face as the bus drove away. It made you cough, and it took everything you had not to crumple down onto the ground and start crying again.

===

By some miracle, you managed to hold yourself together long enough to find a pawn shop, where you sold the valuables you had packed for enough money to hopefully get you a meal and maybe a bed for the night. 

When you walked through the doors of the Steelside Inn, you were about to pass out from exhaustion. The Innkeep was kind enough to take note of this and help you to your room once you’d shown him that you had the money to sleep there.

You were out before he even shut the door as he left the room.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> its him!

You woke up because of your empty stomach.

You woke up again because your legs hurt so badly, and this time you stayed awake. You carefully pulled yourself up to a sitting position in bed-- oh, that’s right, you’re at an inn-- and, looking at the dusty, blood-soaked wrappings on your legs, quickly decided that you need to get new bandages. After you found something to eat, that is.

Making your way down the hallway of the inn was a slow and painful process, but you managed it, Besides the pain you were already in, you found that you were generally feeling very physically weak. Was it always this difficult to walk? You briefly wondered how you were able to travel so far yesterday, but when you tried to remember it, none of the memories are very clear. You must have really been in a daze. You shook your head and tried to put the thought out of your mind before your mind had a chance to latch onto more painful topics-- right now, you needed to focus on finding something to eat.

You limped over to the counter in the Inn’s main room, which also appeared to double as a diner of sorts, complete with a bar. The man behind the counter asked you enough questions to take your order, but he didn’t make any conversation besides the bare minimum. Friendly types were a rare sight, and you knew from experience that kindness was usually reserved for neighbors and locals, especially in smaller communities. Maybe it’s for the best, you humored yourself. It would have been a bit of a mess if he’d asked me about myself at all.

===

After your meal you were feeling quite a bit better, but your legs were still giving you trouble. 

Although you had managed to procure fresh bandages from the Innkeeper, you still had to go through the process of changing the old ones out, which you knew was going to be painful. You sat on the bed in your room and stared at the disgusting old wrappings on your legs for at least ten minutes before you were finally able to muster up the courage to start peeling them off. The burns and cuts stung and stuck to the bandages as you slowly, very slowly, pulled them off and away from the wounds-- “rip them off quickly,” your brother would have probably said, but you just couldn’t-- and at last, after who-knows-how-long, you could see your injuries in their full glory.

The outside air felt cold against the wounds, and you couldn’t decide if it felt good or bad or both or neither, but you did know that you didn’t really want to wait and figure it out,, so you quickly began to re-cover your legs with the fresh wrappings. A part of you regretted that you didn’t have anything to clean the wounds with, but mostly you were just relieved that you wouldn’t have to go through what would certainly be unbearable pain of pouring disinfectant on them.This process hurt enough as-is, you thought.

===

Once you had finished changing your bandages, you changed your coffee-blood-and-tear-stained dress and into one of the cleaner ones you had brought with you. It was surprised how much better you felt after changing-- you still felt horrible and were hurting in more ways than one, but you at least felt like you could (almost) function properly now, which was an improvement.

You sat down on the bed and considered the situation you had put yourself in:

You were far away from home and couldn’t bear to go back, you had very little money, and you were too injured to do any work that would earn you anything decent. If you sat idly, you would probably get kicked out of the inn when you inevitably ran out of money. You didn’t have anything left of value to pawn off for cash. You had eaten one meal in the past three days.

And, of course, your brother…

You shook your head before you could let yourself finish the thought and laid down on the bed. You didn’t have time to feel sorry for yourself right now. You needed to take advantage of the little time you had left before you had to get moving again.

===

Somehow, despite the immense stress, you were able to get a few precious hours’ rest at the inn before the innkeeper came calling and you were forced to leave. Now, you were back on the streets of Steelside, trying to decide whether to buy something to eat or to save the little money you had left for tomorrow’s ventures.

Still feeling tired and sore, you set your bag on the ground and squatted down next to a building in an attempt to get your thoughts in order.

If you bought food, you would feel a lot better, but that was a very short-term solution to a long-term problem. It might be smarter to save your money for a meal tomorrow. You also had to consider where you would sleep that night (on the streets, you guessed) since regardless of whether you bought food or not, you definitely wouldn’t be able to afford to stay anywhere. Honestly, at this point, it was looking like it might be easier for you to just let yourself waste away--

“Oh, it’s a person!” A loud, sunshiney voice interrupted your depressing train of thought. “I thought you were a rock at first! You’re awfully good at sitting still.”

You looked up to see who was talking to you, but when you saw the face of the gangly stranger bending over you, you couldn’t bring yourself to tell him to shut his mouth. He smiled at you gently as you made eye contact with him. If it weren’t for the overwhelmingly awful state of things, you would have smiled too-- this man had the kindest eyes you had ever seen. You looked away, unable to think of anything to say, and shifted into a sitting position on the dusty ground, holding your arms around your legs defensively.

“Hey, hey, are you okay?” The man bent his knees so that he was a little closer to your level. He sounded like he might actually be seriously worried about you. “Sorry I called you a rock. It was just a joke. You really don’t look so good.” 

You looked up at his face again to see that his brows were knitted together with what appeared to be genuine concern for your wellbeing, something that was hard to come by on Gunsmoke. After a moment’s hesitation, you offered a reply. “I’m injured,” you told him.

“Do you need help?” The question caught you by surprise. Was he really offering to help you, just like that? You were sitting on the ground, so obviously you didn’t have anything to give him in exchange. Maybe he didn’t realize that?

“It’s been treated,” you said, hoping he wasn’t planning on dragging you to see a doctor. You’d be in some serious debt if he did that.

“You really don’t look like you’re healthy, though,” the man said, looking over your bandages. “You should be in bed.”

You looked away. Couldn’t he tell that you obviously couldn’t get to one of those right now? 

A few moments of quiet passed by, and the man stood up. You thought he was going to walk away, but to your horror, he reached for your bag-- you scrambled to stand up despite your pain and tried to grab the bag away from him, determined to hold on to the few possessions you still had.

“What are you doing?! Don’t strain yourself if you’re injured,” the man scolded.

“That’s mine! I’m not gonna just let you steal from me!” You tried to sound aggressive, but your voice came out cracked and desperate. 

“Steal?” The man looked hurt. ”I would never steal from a lady! I just wanted to help you carry it!”

“Carry it where?! I’m not-- ugh--” you pulled the bag from his hands, and the force swung you backwards into the side of the building you’d been sitting by-- “I’m not going anywhere!” You slid down the wall until you were sitting again and did your best to hold back the tears welling up in your throat. “Why do you think I’m sitting on the ground? Are you stupid?”

“Whoa, hey, I’m not--” the man interrupted himself with a sigh, then shook his head as he squatted down in front of you again. “I want to help you,” he said, looking you right in the eyes.

You stared at him for what felt like ten minutes. Nobody you’d met on this asshole of a planet had ever been this nice to you thus far (besides your older brother, of course), but for some reason, you couldn’t find any hint of dishonesty in this man’s face that could possibly make you not want to trust him. He had sharp, angular features, but his expression was so soft, and his eyes were so clear.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said. “If you need help, will you follow me?”

You didn’t notice yourself nodding until you realized that the man had stood and taken your bag from you again. This time you didn’t try to fight it back from him, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow, now that im starting to really work on this, im realizing that vash is super difficult to write!!!! hopefully i dont muck him up too badly! anyway, thank u for reading as always, and i hope u will continue to enjoy! any and all feedback is super super super welcome of course!!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> getting right down to business arent we

“Okay, make yourself at home.” The man gestured grandly to a hotel room that was slightly larger than the one you had just been kicked out of. This hotel was across town from that last one, and it seemed that the man had been staying in this room for at least a couple of days-- the room itself was clean and tidy, but there was a large, black duffle bag on the floor at the foot of the bed which had what you assumed were some of the man’s belongings laid out next to it. “You can stay here until I leave town.”

You turned to look up at him, and then back to the hotel room. Was this really a good idea? This guy was a complete stranger, and you were feeling pretty vulnerable right about now. You weren’t sure why you’d decided to trust him in the first place. 

The man walked past you into the room and leaned your bag up against the side of the bed, then sat down. He was looking at you like he was expecting you to come over and sit right down next to him, but you were still feeling too unsure about this entire situation to move from the doorway. 

Did he really expect you to just ‘make yourself at home’ right away? You’d followed him here, but…

“You should really sit down,” the man said, a concerned expression on his face. “It’s your legs, right? Can I see?”

You looked down at your feet. You really were in a lot of pain, Even though you still felt hesitant to trust anything about the current situation, you decided to take the mystery man’s advice and limped over to the bed to sit down next to him. You didn’t exactly have the energy or the physical strength to argue with anyone right now, anyway.

“I don’t have any extra dressings,” you explained, “so I’d like to wait as long as I can before removing these ones.”

The man nodded. “That makes sense. Can you tell me what happened, at least?”

You considered whether you had the energy to answer him. Just hearing the question made you feel drained. Your fingers fiddled with the fabric of your dress as you found yourself studying the floorboards instead of replying.

Obviously taking your silence as a no, the man spoke up again, and you looked over to see him smiling gently. “Uh, it’s okay if you don’t want to answer.”

“Sorry,” you murmured, feeling your brain start to blank out on you. “I just…”

“No, no, what am I saying?” The man interrupted you, his grin starting to look a little sheepish. “I’m the one who should be apologizing! I’m just some strange guy who practically dragged you to my hotel room, and now I’m asking you to tell me about yourself when you don’t even know my name? You don’t owe me any answers.”

Funny. He mentioned that he hadn’t told you his name, but he still avoided telling you. You didn’t really feel like trying to pry it out of him at the moment, though, so you turned your attention back to the hem of your dress, ignoring the feeling of the man’s gaze.

After a few moments of silence, he stood up.

“Anyway, I’m going out,” he said, clunky bootsteps heading for the door. “I still have some stuff to do today, so I’ll be back later.”

You nodded, avoiding eye contact. He was really just going to leave you there with all of his stuff? This guy had to be a complete idiot, or something.

“Like I said before, you’re welcome to stay here and make yourself at home,” he said, and the hotel room door shut behind him with a click.

===

As soon as he had closed the door behind him, Vash sighed and ran a hand up through his hair. Just what did he think he was doing? He was supposed to leave and start heading back towards Lewiston Town tomorrow, but he’d have to delay that now, since he couldn’t resist picking up a lost kitten from the side of the road. Well, he thought, at least it was for a good cause.

But what was he supposed to do now?! He’d really dug himself into quite the pit, now that he had a girl in his room who seemed to be in pretty bad shape, for one reason or another. And he was fairly certain that he hadn’t made the best impression on her so far. 

Shaking his head, he started walking down the hallway. He’d go buy some food for now. She definitely didn’t look like she’d been eating properly, so he would try and take care of that first. There was a first-aid kit in his duffel bag, so he could treat the girl’s wounds before she went to sleep tonight.

At the general store, Vash browsed the isles for things that would be easy to eat and considered what he should tell you when he got back to the hotel. Should he use a fake name? The hotel knew him as Mr. Smith, so it could be suspicious if he told the girl that he was called Vash. On the other hand, if he was going to be around you for a while, a fake name would probably end up being a bit more trouble than it was worth.

Well, he could always just play it by ear, he thought as he checked out at the register. 

When he returned to his hotel room, the first thing he noticed was that the room was empty. Panic jolted through him, but as soon as he saw that your bag was still sitting next to the bed, he calmed down again. You must be in the bathroom. Thank god. Vash set his groceries down on the small table, and then laid the extra blankets he’d picked up on his way back on the floor near his duffel bag. He hummed a tune and made sure to take noticeably noisy steps as he approached the closed bathroom door.

“I’m back,” he said with a gentle knock. He really hoped that he hadn’t startled you. “Are you in there?”

The air was quiet for a few moments, but eventually, a quiet voice sounded from the other side of the door. “Y-Yes, I’m in the bath.”

“Okay. Do you need a towel?”

“No, there’s a couple in here.”

“Okay, I’ll be out here.” Vash hesitated before adding on, “Yell if you need something.”

“Thank you,” came the almost inaudible reply. He felt relieved that you were okay. 

===

It was harder than you’d thought it would be to take a bath in your current condition.

When you’d first entered the bathroom, you had immediately realized that showering was absolutely out of the question. You couldn’t stand very well, and you didn’t want to get your leg wrappings wet, since you didn’t have anything to replace them with. You had managed to sit yourself down in a way that allowed your legs to sit over the edge of the bathtub while still being able to wash your body and hair in the water, but now that you were done getting clean, you had to figure out how to actually get out of the tub.

“Yell if you need something,” was what the mysterious, nameless, and supposedly kind man had told you through the bathroom door five minutes ago. You sighed as you pulled open the tub’s drain to let the water out. As if you were supposed to let a strange man see you naked, you thought.

As if, you thought, but it was starting to look like you might actually need to ask him for assistance.

You took a few more minutes to soak in the warm water while it drained and try to think of a solution to this issue, but nothing came to mind. You sighed. It wasn’t like you had much to lose at this point, anyway, you reasoned with yourself.

“...H-Hey,” you halfheartedly called. It’d be better to get this done quickly.

Almost immediately, you heard footsteps approach the bathroom door. You tensed up, prepared for it to open, but it stayed closed. “Do you need something?” The man’s voice asked.

“Uh, yeah,” you said. Ugh, how were you supposed to phrase this? “I… need some help.”

“Are you okay?”

No, you weren’t okay. This was really inappropriate, and you felt incredibly embarrassed asking a stranger to help you out of a bathtub. “Y-Yeah, I… just…”

“What is it?” He sounded concerned.

“I… I need some help getting out of the tub,” you finally confessed. There, the hard part was over. “C-Can you come in? Uh, try not to look if you can help it, I just need you to help me stand up…” Suddenly, a thought crossed your mind. “Wait, wait, first let me grab a towel, I think I can reach one.”

You twisted in the now-empty tub towards the wall next to the tub, where two towels were hanging on a bar. After a couple of attempts, you were able to grab one and pull it down. You quickly wrapped it around yourself as best you could in your current sitting position.

“Okay, I have a towel on now,” you called. 

After what felt like a year of silence, the man finally replied. “Okay, I’m coming in.” 

You stiffened up at the sound of the doorknob turning, but when the bathroom door opened, you watched as the man moved slowly over to the tub and held a hand out for you, being very careful not to look at you directly.

“Can you pull yourself up with my hand?” He asked, his head still turned away from you. You took his hand and pulled on it to try and get up, but you weren’t able to get much leverage with your legs without feeling a screaming pain where they pressed on the side of the tub. You groaned at the sensation and lowered yourself back down to sit again. “Are you okay?”

“I-I don’t think I’m strong enough right now,” you said with a sigh. This guy didn’t seem to mean any harm, and you hoped to god that you were right. You reminded yourself once again that you had very little left to lose. “Do… do you think you can lift me? I-I have a towel on, so it’s okay if you have to look, just…”

“...I’m going to turn around and try to pick you up,” the man told you after considering your words.

“O-Okay.”

At your consent, the man turned towards you and took a moment to decide the best way to approach the situation. “Can you turn sideways for me?” You turned sideways so that your feet were at one end of the inside of the tub instead of sticking out the side. “Thanks. I’m going to pick you up now,” he told you, then waited for you to answer him again.

“Okay,” was all you could say in response. You wrapped your arms around yourself and held your towel tightly in order to keep it from slipping at all.

The man bent down and carefully, very carefully, wrapped one arm under your knees and the other behind your back. And then, with strength that you certainly hadn’t expected him to have, he stood back up again, cradling you in his arms gingerly. “Is this okay? Are you in any pain?”

“I-I’m okay,” you managed to sputter out. “Will-- Will you take me to the bed, please?”

“Yeah, yes,” the man said, and he walked over to the bed and sat you down on it where you could reach your bag. “Uh, I’ll go into the bathroom, so you can just change right here. Just let me know when you’re done.” 

“Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what a THRILL!

**Author's Note:**

> concrit welcome! PLEASE let me know if you think i am writing poorly or getting any characters wrong. ideas, questions, etc. are also very welcome!! please enjoy :')


End file.
